Contagious Faith

Monday, September 18, 2023

It was by faith that Moses’ parents hid him for three months when he was born. They saw that God had given them an unusual child, and they were not afraid to disobey the king’s command.  It was by faith that Moses, when he grew up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.  He chose to share the oppression of God’s people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin.  He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his great reward.  It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger.  He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible.  It was by faith that Moses commanded the people of Israel to keep the Passover and to sprinkle blood on the doorposts so that the angel of death would not kill their firstborn sons.  It was by faith that the people of Israel went right through the Red Sea as though they were on dry ground.  But when the Egyptians tried to follow, they were all drowned.  Hebrews 11:23-29

The entire life of Moses is encapsulated in the word “faith”.  And yet the story of Moses’ life is not primarily about one man’s faith, but rather how faith is honored by God’s validation, and passed along to others who need to know a faithful God.  Moses is the story of contagious faith.

A man who helped pass along the faith to me when I was still in elementary school described how one “acquires” faith as more like plunging-into, rather than grabbing it, as you would pick up a baseball bat.  This is because a bat becomes your possession; plunging-into faith means you’re surrounded by it, possessed by its essence, and carried along where it will lead.  Read the Exodus account, and you will see that is so in the way Moses led and encouraged Israel.

The process with Moses grew and tested his faith throughout his life.  Born to Hebrew parents, released to God’s care in a basket floating down the Nile, found and adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter, and raised in the palaces of Egypt’s dynasty as a prince, Moses eventually discovered his heritage and turned his back on the riches of Pharaoh’s kingdom, in favor of the suffering he would find with slaves.

This image, and how the writer to the Hebrews casts it, brings into view one further analogy from baseball’s core:  keeping your eye on the ball.  Anyone who has ever had a baseball coach has heard those words.  When you step up to the plate for your turn at bat, it’s with the intention of hitting the ball so you can run the bases.  It is easy to get distracted with the crowd cheering (or booing).  The catcher will engage you in conversation if he can, to keep you from concentrating on hitting the ball.  The pitcher hides the ball until the moment of release, so you can’t see what he’s up to.  The sun can get in your eyes, or the waving trees beyond the fence can draw your attention from the one task for which you’ve practiced, learned, and are standing there facing nine opposing players…to smack that ball into the middle of next week.  And it won’t happen if you don’t keep your focus on that little white ball with red-stiches holding it together, screaming towards home plate at 80-90 miles-per-hour.  Keep your eye on the ball!

For You Today 

Keep your eye on the ball.  This is what faith whispered in Moses’ ear when the crunch time arrived.  Would it be a life of luxury, served on a gold platter in Pharaoh’s house…or a hard walk in slave sandals?  The “ball” in this case was a question that every person on planet earth must answer eventually:  Who are you going to serve?  If you want to serve Pharaoh, with this world’s approval and treasures, you will not serve the King of Glory.  Jesus has the last word on that:

No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.”  Luke 16:13

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library. 

Images without citation are in public domain.  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©   

When the House Turns Upside Down

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Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Then King Xerxes said to Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew, “I have given Esther the property of Haman, and he has been impaled on a pole because he tried to destroy the Jews.  Now go ahead and send a message to the Jews in the king’s name, telling them whatever you want, and seal it with the king’s signet ring.  But remember that whatever has already been written in the king’s name and sealed with his signet ring can never be revoked.”  So on June 25 the king’s secretaries were summoned, and a decree was written exactly as Mordecai dictated.  It was sent to the Jews and to the highest officers, the governors, and the nobles of all the 127 provinces stretching from India to Ethiopia.  The decree was written in the scripts and languages of all the peoples of the empire, including that of the Jews.  The decree was written in the name of King Xerxes and sealed with the king’s signet ring.  Mordecai sent the dispatches by swift messengers, who rode fast horses especially bred for the king’s service.  The king’s decree gave the Jews in every city authority to unite to defend their lives.  They were allowed to kill, slaughter, and annihilate anyone of any nationality or province who might attack them or their children and wives, and to take the property of their enemies.  The day chosen for this event throughout all the provinces of King Xerxes was March 7 of the next year.  A copy of this decree was to be issued as law in every province and proclaimed to all peoples, so that the Jews would be ready to take revenge on their enemies on the appointed day.  So urged on by the king’s command, the messengers rode out swiftly on fast horses bred for the king’s service.  The same decree was also proclaimed in the fortress of Susa.  Then Mordecai left the king’s presence, wearing the royal robe of blue and white, the great crown of gold, and an outer cloak of fine linen and purple. And the people of Susa celebrated the new decree.  The Jews were filled with joy and gladness and were honored everywhere.  In every province and city, wherever the king’s decree arrived, the Jews rejoiced and had a great celebration and declared a public festival and holiday.  And many of the people of the land became Jews themselves, for they feared what the Jews might do to them.  Esther 8:7-17

The story of Esther turns one of our naïve house theories upside-down, that of an instant-ready Heaven, where there is nothing more to be accomplished; the principle of the Laws of the Medes and Persians doesn’t work that way. 

Haman, the evil-plotting, would-be throne-stealer, has duped the king, a basically good guy, into issuing a holocaust order against the Jews that on a coming day they would all be killed.  Mordecai, Esther’s uncle convinces Queen Esther to plead with the king for the lives of their people.  The evil protagonist, Haman gets wind of Esther and her uncle’s activity and has a large wooden pole prepared to impale Mordecai.  As Haman’s evil is exposed, the king, who dearly loves Esther, is so furious he has Haman impaled on the very pole meant for Mordecai. 

This is a plot that has thickened most Hollywood dramas.  But there is more.  According to the Law of the Medes and Persians, a decree issued by the king cannot be reversed.  According to the previous decree the Jews must die.  So, the king gives Esther the right to issue a further decree in His name.  She grants the legality of Jews to defend themselves without being held accountable.  The day is saved, and Mordecai is elevated to being King Xerxes’ right-hand man.

For You Today

Sometimes our view of Heaven is of a blurry-tunnel where we emerge ethereally peaceful on the other shore, with every complication figured-out.  God’s book, including Esther (which, paradoxically, never mentions the name of God), tells us otherwise.  As in Esther, evil is thwarted, and righteous justice prevails, so will Heaven set at right that which has been wrong.  But it won’t be entirely without our involvement.  As Esther and Mordecai had to scramble to come up with a solution to a messed-up situation – a holocaust set in motion by a misguided human choice – so believers will be charged with ruling in Christ’s kingdom.

I believe this is one of the chief reasons for our threescore-and-ten existence here on planet earth.  There is an apprenticeship necessary to become the kind of people God will use in ruling His beloved creation.  If that were not so, there could be no meaning to the pain we experience in this life.  God could take us directly to Heaven if He desired, but He doesn’t, so there is meaning in what we do and experience in this life.  Like the laws of the Medes and Persians, we cannot change the decrees of the past…but we can cooperate with God by opening our hearts to learn His ways, do His will in His Kingdom, and, like Mordecai, one day fully live-into that role of communing face-to-face with our Creator.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[i] Title Image:   Pixabay.com

[ii] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©